Didlington

Didlington
St Michael's Church
Didlington Location within Norfolk
Area	11.07 km2 (4.27 sq mi)
OS grid reference	TL7821097350
District	Breckland
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Thetford
Postcode district	IP26
Dialling code	01842
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South West Norfolk
List of places UK England Norfolk 52°32′41″N0°37′36″E / 52.544831°N 0.626654°E / 52.544831; 0.626654

Didlington is a village and civil parish in the Breckland district of the English county of Norfolk.

Didlington is located 11 miles (18 km) north-west of Thetford and 29 miles (47 km) west of Norwich.

History

Didlington's name is of mixed Anglo-Saxon origin deriving from the Old English for 'the farm or settlement of Duddel's people.' ^[1]

In the Domesday Book, Didlington is recorded as a settlement of 51 households in the hundred of South Greenhoe. In 1086, the village was part of the estate of William de Warenne and Ralph de Limesy. ^[2]

Didlington Hall was once the residence of William Tyssen-Amherst, Baron Amherst who amassed a significant Egyptological collection. ^[3] The house was re-modelled between 1879 and 1886 by Richard Norman Shaw and was used by the 7th Armoured Division during the Second World War. The house was demolished in the 1950s, though the stables and clock-tower remain. ^[4]

Geography

As the parish has a minimal population, it has been recorded in census data along with the nearby parish of Ickburgh. ^[5]

The village is located along the River Wissey.

St. Michael's Church

Didlington's parish church is dedicated to Saint Michael and dates from the Fourteenth Century. St. Michael's has been Grade I listed since 1960. ^[6]

St. Michael's was heavily restored in the Victorian era and still hosts a set of royal arms from the reign of Queen Victoria alongside a font made of Purbeck Marble dating from the Thirteenth Century. ^[7]

Governance

Didlington is part of the electoral ward of Bedingfield for local elections and is part of the district of Breckland.

The village's national constituency is South West Norfolk which has been represented by Labour's Terry Jermy MP since 2024.

War Memorial

Didlington's war memorial is a small plaque inside St. Michael's Church which lists the following names for the First World War: ^[8]

Rank	Name	Unit	Date of Death	Burial/Commemoration
Pte.	Albert R. Corbett	1st Bn., Essex Regiment	22 Apr. 1917	Cologne Southern Cemetery
Pte.	Richard L. Hughes	4th Bn., Yorkshire Regiment	5 May 1918	Cologne Southern Cemetery

References

1. "Key to English Place-names". kepn.nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
2. "Didlington | Domesday Book". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
3. Parkinson, R. B. (17 February 2009). Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   978-1-4051-2547-5.
4. Kingsley, Nick (11 May 2014). "Landed families of Britain and Ireland: (122) Tyssen-Amherst (later Cecil) of Didlington Hall and Foulden Hall, Barons Amherst of Hackney". Landed families of Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
5. "Didlington (Parish, United Kingdom) - Population Statistics, Charts, Map and Location". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
6. "CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, Didlington - 1305343 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
7. "Norfolk Churches". www.norfolkchurches.co.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
8. "Geograph:: Denton to Dunton cum Doughton :: War Memorials in Norfolk". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2025.